Return-Path: <nifl-health@literacy.nifl.gov> Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id g2LGgWu29761; Thu, 21 Mar 2002 11:42:32 -0500 (EST) Date: Thu, 21 Mar 2002 11:42:32 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <B24038C0D3E160419E320030D92C22DE88BCD0@hobbes.cal.org> Errors-To: listowner@literacy.nifl.gov Reply-To: nifl-health@literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-health@literacy.nifl.gov Sender: nifl-health@literacy.nifl.gov Precedence: bulk From: "Dora Johnson" <dora@cal.org> To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-health@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-HEALTH:3621] HEALTH Q&A FROM NCLE X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Content-Type: text/plain; Status: O Content-Length: 2851 Lines: 38 Miriam Burt of our staff sent this to various lists and I thought I'd share it with the NIFL-Health list. Lately I've been having trouble with my right knee;it is swollen and painful. In the process of negotiating services from my managed care system about this in the last two weeks I have: 1. called the clinic 7 times; 2. been seen by two different urgent care specialists; 3. had an X-ray at the clinic; 4. had an MRI at the hospital; 5. been put on hold for more than 45 minutes total; 6. read and signed 6 different forms; 7. written 2 checks for my insurance co-pay; 7. lost several hours of work time; 8. been given the wrong phone number for the specialist; 9. been told by one doctor to use heat; 10. been told by another to ice the knee; 11. waited in various lobbies and rooms for more than 5 hours; and 12. received services for close to 1 hour (amount of time is artificially high because MRI took 35 minutes). I will finally see the specialist tomorrow, two weeks after beginning the odyssey. So what's the point of the above list? The difficulties I have experienced navigating the health care system have required using problem solving, language, and literacy skills. As hard as this has been for me, it would have been so much harder if I couldn't read or write with ease. And what if I couldn't understand what was said to me on the phone in the voice mail system? By the receptionists? By the doctors? By the nurses and technicians? By the guard in the lobby of the hospital? What if I didn't have the English language skills to ask for and get the correct phone number when I have been given the wrong one initially? Or to ask to use the phone when I see that I will be unable to pick up my daughter on time from her after school care and need to get someone else to do it? What can we as adult ESL educators do to help learners? The new Q & A from NCLE on Health Literacy and Adult English Language Learners by Kate Singleton is available from NCLE or on our Web site at http://www.cal.org/ncle/digests/healthlitQA.htm. It gives suggestions for improving health literacy instruction for ESL learners and includes a annotated list of resources on the topic. Additional resources are available on NCLE's Web site in the annotated bibliography of health literacy for adult English language learners http://www.cal.org/ncle/healthbib.htm Finally, there is a Web collection, also by Kate Singleton, on using picture stories for adult ESL health literacy. The picture stories and instructions for their use can be downloaded at http://www.cal.org/ncle/health/ Dora Johnson Research Associate National Center for ESL Literacy Education Center for Applied Linguistics 4646 40th Street, NW Washington, DC 20016-1859 Telephone: 202-362-0700 Fax: 202-363-7204 E-mail: dora@cal.org Web site: www.cal.org/ncle
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